Millennials Are Fine With an Office Overshare, Also With Dumping a Work Friend to Get Ahead, Says New Study

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we're spending nearly nine hours a day working (actually sounds a little low, sigh), so it's really no surprise that we end up getting friendly with people at the office. But what is surprising is that according to a new study from LinkedIn, Millennials are good at making work friends and are totally OK with talking to their office mates about relationship drama (a topic that can really easily turn into TMI territory), but they are also fine with ditching a friend altogether when there's a promotion at stake.

Whew, let's start with the relationship talk. Over 67 percent of Millennials are likely to share personal details with coworkers about things like salary, family, and relationships, and 53 percent are comfortable sharing relationship advice at the office, the study showed. To be fair, who hasn't taken a Starbucks run with a colleague to blab about a date, or help a work friend figure out why that guy from Tinder stopped texting? My take: It's no biggie to talk to colleagues at your level (no boss, no direct reports), as long as you keep the convo quiet, or better yet, take it out of the office. In the middle of a messy breakup? Take a personal day if you can, but spare your boss the brutal details. The only exception to this if if you're so upset, it's affecting your work. Then give her a heads-up that you're going through something in your personal life and assure her you are working through it—but leave it at that. (This can be a tough convo, so check out these other tips on how to talk to your Gen-X boss.)

The stat that made me raise my eyebrows, though, was this: 68 percent of Millennials would sacrifice a friendship to get ahead at work, while 62 percent of Boomers would not. Some of this may come back to Boomers having had the same colleagues for years, but still—that's a huge difference. On one hand, it's a positive that women are going after what they want in their careers, no apologies. On the other, well, this might be the perfect example of why sharing too much with coworkers is probably a bad idea. Leading a team project could get pretty awkward if the whole room knows every detail of your personal life!

Your turn: Do you think there's such a thing as getting too friendly with coworkers? Have any topics that are totally off-limits at the office? Share in the comments below!